08 December 2009 6:09 PM

Different Lions, same British bulldog spirit as Lambeth Academy catch the rugby bug...

Talk to anyone who doesn't follow the game and it's the same old story: Rugby? That's for posh people. Disagree and they'll offer evidence. By 'evidence' I mean the fanciful notion of double-barrelled rich kids at swanky schools who eat with golden spoons, sleep in 18th century dormitories and play 'rugger' in acres of plush fields.

Yes, the social division between the egg and the pig's bladder was initially one of wealth and status, but the only reason this division still lurks in the shadows is a lack of exposure. It's not the beautiful gameTM, but it is a beautiful game and it would be great to see more schools adding rugby to the sporting curriculum.

Two men modestly attempting to address this imbalance are James Burnett and Peter Hood. Friends from Oxford University, they missed rugby after graduating in the summer and decided to do something about it.

As Hood was already teaching history at Lambeth Academy, a newly built school in South London where the boys are first and foremost obsessed with the Premier League, the pair embarked on the challenge of setting up a rugby club. And the Lambeth Lions were born.

I met up with head coach Burnett in the build-up to the Lions' first fixture, a friendly with a development team from Epsom College, and his enthusiasm for the side was contagious.

'Initially rugby didn't have much respect in a massively football dominated school,' he said. 'But we're now attracting the bigger, more athletic guys to turn up. More people are coming each week and girls are now coming to watch training which all the guys love!'

I ask him how he and Hood have managed to teach a bunch of 15 and 16-year-olds the rules of rugby in only nine training sessions, particularly given that even avid fans sometimes struggle to understand the nuances of a complex game.

'Teaching the theoretical stuff is hard when you're trying to maintain their interest. Initially they'd take it as a personal affront if they were tackled just because it was such an alien concept. The main problem was only two of the guys had ever watched a game before. They wouldn't understand what a ruck is simply because they'd never seen one.

'In hindsight, I'd make them sit down and watch a rugby match in the first week. But we try to associate a rule to an exercise so they get why we're practising it. We haven't even started with turnovers yet...'

Richie McCaw would be horrified, but it's not as if the Lambeth Lions can match the financial clout of an All Blacks youth side. Burnett explains the biggest problem with teaching rugby is that it requires a lot more equipment than our nation's favourite sport. In fact for the match itself another south London school, King's College Wimbledon, have kindly given the Lions a kit to wear.

'We started off with a pump, 15 balls and some cones,' he says. 'All the balls are size 4 but the real problem is a lack of tackle pads and shields. It means training is either purely technical or full contact.'

Has that inhibited the side's progress? 'The progression has been amazing in terms of the training,' he tells me. 'They know now when things are going right on the pitch and enjoy it when it goes well.'

Can he give an example? 'This one guy couldn't get the right line off a backs move, then I explained why there'd be a defensive gap between 10 and 12 and he now hits a slamming line every time.'

It seems theory and execution are coming together nicely in time for the big day. He tells me Tuesday's training session was the best yet and he's obviously optimistic that the Lions could pull off a victory against all the odds.

As we end the interview, Burnett is off to a lunch that he and Hood have arranged for 'the boys' to show them some highlights of the Autumn internationals and talk them through some of the finer points of the game. More importantly, the lunch was also planned 'to bring them closer as a unit'.

'They started off as quite cliquey, but hopefully they're now mates. Even if they don't meet up outside of school but bother to say hi to each other in the hall way.'

And his prediction? 'If it clicks I think we'll score tries. We've got some guys in the backline with the ability to score. But if we don't manage the breakdown well enough we might struggle. We haven't shown them how to kick. We're just not doing that. Why learn rugby to kick?'

It might be tactical suicide with such a novice side, but you've got to love his attitude.

I give Burnett a call on Saturday night to hear how the Lions got on. He sounds chirpy despite a 28-39 defeat. The Lions put up a brave fight and he is obviously buzzing after seeing all their hard work come together in a real match.

I ask him if the side were nervous before kick-off. 'The warm-up went well, but it was difficult because we had to spend time trying to explain more rules and get them understanding how the different parts of the game would fit together. We should have spent more time walking through unopposed games because I think a slight lack of match understanding affected our performance.'

'The first couple of minutes went really well and we put phases together which was, quite frankly, unbelievable considering they had never done phase after phase in practice! We lost possession around the half way line and they scored in the left corner, but the signs were there for some serious promise going forward and it set the tone of the game.'

As expected, Epsom's superior fitness told and, despite being five points down with 10 minutes to play, the Lions couldn't hold on. As Burnett puts it: 'Our legs went in the last part of the game and with it went our defensive pattern. Very few tackles had been missed up to the last 10 but we fell off a lot in the final chapter and gave them far too much room to work in.

'In the end the score was 28-39 to Epsom College, which is a phenomenal achievement by the guys considering they have trained once a week for nine weeks in comparison to the three sessions a week Epsom will have had. Plus the school is 140-odd years old so they know what they are doing!'

So the Lions narrowly lost to a school that has been around longer than the RFU itself, not bad going right? 'After the game the guys were pretty disheartened at first, and were gutted that they had let the lead slip - which is a great sign for us. It shows their commitment, desire and genuine passion for the rugby and the team.

'We had a little chat on the pitch and made them realize the scale of their achievement and then they all went off to tea and got their energy levels back up! All of them were amazed at how hard rugby was and couldn't believe how much the contact takes out of you.

'All of them want another game and if we work hard on defence and sort out our rucking, I definitely think we could challenge and win our games in the future. I'd also like to thank Epsom College for giving us a game.

'I'm so proud of the guys for how they have thrown themselves in to the challenge and how hard they have worked. A win would have been nice, but they showed such a huge amount of promise that they are all hooked on rugby. The future looks good!'

The future for the game looks good too, as long as more schools challenge the cliche and follow the roaring example of the Lambeth Lions.

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